The moment Simon Clarke thought he won stage four of the Giro d'Italia (video)

After winning a sprint for second place, Orica-GreenEdge's Simon Clarke celebrated like he'd won it

Orica-GreenEdge's Simon Clarke had a bit of an enthusiastic reaction to finishing second on stage four of the Giro d'Italia.

The Australian threw his arms up in the air and let out a roar as he pipped Yonathan Monsalve and Giovanni Visconti to the line some 22 seconds behind winner Davide Formolo.

Clarke clearly thought he had won the stage, but he tried to style it out in the post-race interview, explaining that he celebrated so much because it means a lot to keep the leader's jersey in the Orica team.

In reality Clarke may not have actually been aware that the bunch were chasing Formolo, who soloed the final 15km because he had to work so hard to keep up with his group.

The likes of Fabio Aru, Alberto Contador and Richie Porte upped the already incredible pace in order to catch the breakaway Cannondale-Garmin rider and Clarke was left scrambling to keep up.

But surely his team could have told him he was racing for second? Clarke picked up a handful of bonus seconds to boost his maglia rosa standing, as he leads teammate Esteban Chaves by 10 seconds.

 

 

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Stuart Clarke is a News Associates trained journalist who has worked for the likes of the British Olympic Associate, British Rowing and the England and Wales Cricket Board, and of course Cycling Weekly. His work at Cycling Weekly has focused upon professional racing, following the World Tour races and its characters.